EWA A. ŁUKASZYK
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • THEORY & EXPERIMENTS
    • BEYOND TRANSMISSION
    • DESERT
    • EROTICISM OF TRACE
    • INTIMATE MICROSPHERES
    • NON-CULTURAL MORPHOGENESIS
    • PINWHEELS
    • POETICS OF THE VOID
    • SYMBOLIC MATRIX
  • RESEARCH & PROJECTS
    • DISCIPLINES >
      • LITERARY THEORY
      • COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
      • GLOBAL LITERARY STUDIES
      • HISTORY OF IDEAS
      • CULTURAL THEORY & ANALYSIS
    • AREAS >
      • ISLAMIC STUDIES
      • ARAB LITERATURE
      • MAGHREBIAN & WEST AFRICAN STUDIES
      • WEST EUROPEAN & EURO-MEDITERRANEAN LITERATURES
      • EAST EUROPEAN & POST-SOVIET LITERATURES
      • PORTUGUESE STUDIES
      • LUSOPHONE AFRICAN STUDIES
      • LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
    • PERIODS >
      • MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN STUDIES
      • 19TH-CENTURY STUDIES
    • FIELDS >
      • TRANSCULTURAL HUMANITIES
      • TRANSCOLONIAL & TRANSINDIGENOUS STUDIES
      • MARITIME HUMANITIES
      • FEMINISMS, GENDER & QUEER STUDIES
      • EROTICISM & SEXUALITY STUDIES
      • PLANT & ANIMAL STUDIES
      • APOCALYPTIC STUDIES
    • TOPICS >
      • TRAVEL WRITING
      • WRITINGS ON ART
  • LIBRARY & THE WORLD
    • ARCTIC & SCANDINAVIA >
      • GREENLAND
      • ICELAND
      • NORWAY
      • SWEDEN
      • FINLAND
      • DENMARK
    • EASTERN EUROPE >
      • ESTONIA
      • LATVIA
      • LITHUANIA
      • RUSSIA
      • BELARUS
      • UKRAINE
      • POLAND
      • Forty Years of Travel in Poland
      • CZECH REPUBLIC
      • SLOVAKIA
      • HUNGARY
      • ROMANIA
      • MOLDOVA
    • WESTERN EUROPE >
      • IRELAND
      • SCOTLAND
      • GREAT BRITAIN
      • NETHERLANDS
      • BELGIUM
      • LUXEMBURG
      • GERMANY
      • AUSTRIA
      • LIECHTENSTEIN
      • SWITZERLAND
      • FRANCE
      • MIDI
      • ITALY
      • VENICE
      • SICILY
      • MALTA
      • CATALONIA
      • SPAIN
      • PORTUGAL
      • CANARY ISLANDS
    • THE BALKANS >
      • SLOVENIA
      • CROATIA
      • SERBIA
      • ALBANIA
      • BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
      • MONTENEGRO
      • BULGARIA
      • NORTH MACEDONIA
      • GREECE
    • CAUCASUS >
      • GEORGIA
      • ARMENIA
      • AZERBAIJAN
      • CHECHNYA & INGUSHETIA
      • DAGESTAN
      • A Ride across the Caucasus
    • MIDDLE EAST >
      • EGYPT
      • LEBANON
      • PALESTINE
      • ISRAEL
      • CYPRUS
      • TURKEY
      • CAPPADOCIA
      • KURDISTAN
      • SYRIA
      • IRAQ
      • KUWAIT
      • JORDAN
      • SAUDI ARABIA
      • QATAR
      • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
      • BAHRAIN
      • OMAN
      • YEMEN
    • MAGHREB & SAHEL >
      • AL-ANDALUS
      • MOROCCO
      • TUNISIA
      • ALGERIA
      • LIBYA
      • SAHRAWI REPUBLIC
      • MAURITANIA
      • MALI
      • BURKINA FASO
      • NIGER
      • CHAD
      • SUDAN
      • FULANI WORLD
      • MANDINGA WORLD
    • WEST AFRICA >
      • SENEGAL
      • GAMBIA
      • CAPE VERDE
      • GUINEA-BISSAU
      • GUINEA
      • SIERRA LEONE
      • IVORY COAST
      • GHANA
      • SAO TOME & PRINCIPE
      • TOGO
      • BENIN
      • NIGERIA
      • CAMEROON
      • EQUATORIAL GUINEA
      • CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
      • GABON
    • THE HORN OF AFRICA >
      • ETHIOPIA
      • ERITREA
      • DJIBOUTI
      • SOMALIA
    • THE SOUTH OF AFRICA >
      • CONGO
      • UGANDA
      • KENYA
      • RWANDA
      • BURUNDI
      • TANZANIA
      • ANGOLA
      • ZAMBIA
      • MALAWI
      • MOZAMBIQUE
      • ZIMBABWE
      • NAMIBIA
      • BOTSWANA
      • SOUTH AFRICA
      • LESOTHO
      • ESWATINI
    • INDIA & INDIAN OCEAN >
      • INDIA
      • NEPAL
      • BHUTAN
      • BANGLADESH
      • SRI LANKA
      • MALDIVES
      • SEYCHELLES
      • MAURITIUS
      • COMOROS
      • MADAGASCAR
    • SOUTH EAST ASIA >
      • LAOS
      • VIETNAM
      • CAMBODIA
      • MYANMAR
      • THAILAND
      • MALAYSIA
      • SINGAPORE
      • BRUNEI
      • INDONESIA
      • BALI
      • TIMOR
      • PHILIPPINES
    • IRAN & CENTRAL ASIA >
      • IRAN
      • AFGHANISTAN
      • PAKISTAN
      • UZBEKISTAN
      • TAJIKISTAN
      • KYRGYZSTAN
      • TURKMENISTAN
      • KAZAKHSTAN
      • TAKLAMAKAN & THE UYGHURS
    • NORTH & NORTH EAST ASIA >
      • CHUKOTKA & KAMCHATKA
      • SAKHA (YAKUTIA)
      • JAPAN
      • MANCHURIA
      • KOREA
      • BURYATIA
      • TUVA
      • MONGOLIA
      • CHINA
      • TIBET
    • NORTH AMERICA >
      • CANADA
      • UNITED STATES
    • MESOAMERICA >
      • MEXICO
      • GUATEMALA
      • BELIZE
      • EL SALVADOR
      • HONDURAS
      • NICARAGUA
      • COSTA RICA
      • PANAMA
    • THE CARIBBEAN >
      • CUBA
      • JAMAICA
      • HAITI
      • DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
      • PUERTO RICO
      • MARTINIQUE
      • TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
    • SOUTH AMERICA >
      • BRAZIL
      • COLOMBIA
      • VENEZUELA
      • GUYANA
      • SURINAME
      • ECUADOR
      • PERU
      • BOLIVIA
      • URUGUAY
      • PARAGUAY
      • ARGENTINA
      • CHILE
    • POLYNESIA >
      • EASTER ISLAND
      • TAHITI & FRENCH POLYNESIA
      • SAMOA
      • TONGA
    • MICRONESIA >
      • MARSHALL ISLANDS
      • PALAU
      • KIRIBATI
    • MELANESIA >
      • PAPUA NEW GUINEA
      • NEW CALEDONIA
      • VANUATU
      • FIJI
      • SOLOMON ISLANDS
    • AUSTRALASIA >
      • AUSTRALIA
      • NEW ZEALAND
    • ANTARCTICA >
      • EXPLORATION
  • AUTOBIOGRAPHICA & MARGINALIA
    • The Four Riders
    • The Flight of the Crimson Angel
    • Becoming undead
    • Transition
    • LIFESTYLE
    • ON LANGUAGES
    • FALCONRY
    • NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY >
      • PLANTS >
        • BOTANIC GARDENS
        • FORESTS
      • BUTTERFLIES
      • AMPHIBIANS & REPTILES
      • BIRDS
      • MAMMALS
      • WATER & AQUATIC LIFE
      • EARTH
      • LIGHT
    • GARDEN & DESERT. Erotic Journal
  • News & Events
    • Void in the making. RESEARCH BLOG
  • TEXTS
  • Contact

GARDEN & DESERT
​
Erotic Journal

On the top of the planet - The Wall

15/11/2019

0 Comments

 
I'm standing before the Wall, this very Wall against which so many colleagues of mine have crashed. I'm tired of my obscurity. Determined to jump the Wall.
The Wall is built of the sense of insignificance. I recon it is very easy (OK, I speak from my own perspective) to become a participant of the international academia. It is enough to write in English and have some minimal amount of things to say; an access to a research library (like the one I have in Leiden) helps a great deal. And that's it. It's enough to write fully international texts such as my chapter on Mia Couto that will soon appear in a volume edited by a Dutch guy, or the book review that I've recently submitted to a Brill-edited journal. 
But there is still a Wall, even if one gets this sort of participation. Certainly, I'm very much above ambitious scholars of my country, such as, let's say, Marta S., living a dream of professorial importance in their peripheral universities. I recon that, from the point of view of affects experienced, such people must be enormously better-off than myself. But my target is not to be better-off than Marta S.; there is no legitimate comparison to be drawn. When I think about the Wall, I think about the reasons why our best people, like Agata Bielik-Robson, or Michał Paweł Markowski (well, he is the best in making a creative use of his crass mediocrity laid bare in such books as Dzień na ziemi, I should recon this) never truly became international scholars. I mean, they went abroad but continued to publish quite significantly in Poland (thing I decided not to do or stop doing). I suppose the Wall against which they crashed was the void, the rarefied air of international contexts. This characteristic anonymity of big international conference in which every speaker's value is the same (except the handful of key-note stars that, if they are 4 or 5 in a thousand of common participants, form a minority of how many? a fraction of one percent). David Damrosch commented on this phenomenon, satirically, in his unforgettable novel Meetings of the Mind. 
Those who went abroad, --even the best ones, especially the best ones--, must miss bitterly the visibility they could enjoy in Poland, in their time. Their English-speaking books seem to fall into bottomless pits, abysses; don't make them such stars as they used to be in Poland.
I suppose my ERC, if it's finally accepted, won't make of me such a star as Justyna Olko was, in her time, in Warsaw. Because it's quite common to have an ERC grant in Leiden, it is very normal. Well, a colleague from here, one specialised in Chad, if I'm not mistaken, always tells me that in fact it is quite difficult to get those grants. But for sure, no one will make an interview with me on such an occasion, nor give me a state commendation for such a reason. It will only give me just enough ground to stand with my both feet for five years, nothing more. Well, and the privilege of enjoying a really good salary for five years, something I never experienced in my life. Certainly, I would enjoy it much more than any Polish commendation or a place in the Council of Research Excellence in a country without research excellence to speak of. Well, basically, this is why I'm here, not there, accepting the discomfort of being confronted with the rough surface of the Wall that makes my fingers bleed.
 
How to jump the Wall, then? And what is on the other side? 
On the other side are books that remain. I can recognise them quite easily by the sensation they leave in my mind after reading them for half an hour, one hour, two hours. The sensation is revitalising, refreshing; quite the contrary of the sensation of having eaten gravel that even apparently brilliant Polish books, such as those of Tadeusz Sławek (let alone Markowski's Dzień na ziemi), leave in me. Those are books to remove, without which I would respire better at home. 
I want to write books that remain. This is why I'm in Leiden, camping around the library, and go on publishing papers in the four corners of the planet; papers that will not bring me visibility, but serve me as a daily exercise in my art. Each one is different, not to say better than the previous one, but they lead me all the way up toward excellent writing.
I have too many articles already, the novelty and the step upward consists in expanding my field worldwide (currently I muse what kind of paper I could send to a comparative literature journal published in Shiraz; I'm thinking about the presence of Omar Khayyam).
On the other side of the Wall are my own books, in hard cover, written in decent English and published by decent editors. And me, at the fireplace, in my home in Leiden or in Oxford (oh, I wake up one day and the brexit story is no more) or in Heidelberg (I consider it for such an eventuality I don't get my ERC in Leiden; a plan B to be put in practice this spring).
 
Whatever it takes, I shall climb the Wall. Because I am this kind of tough, uncompromising woman who will never sit on her bottom in any council of research excellence in a country without any excellent research to speak of, or put her travels into books for people suffering from congenital world blindness.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    blog archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • THEORY & EXPERIMENTS
    • BEYOND TRANSMISSION
    • DESERT
    • EROTICISM OF TRACE
    • INTIMATE MICROSPHERES
    • NON-CULTURAL MORPHOGENESIS
    • PINWHEELS
    • POETICS OF THE VOID
    • SYMBOLIC MATRIX
  • RESEARCH & PROJECTS
    • DISCIPLINES >
      • LITERARY THEORY
      • COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
      • GLOBAL LITERARY STUDIES
      • HISTORY OF IDEAS
      • CULTURAL THEORY & ANALYSIS
    • AREAS >
      • ISLAMIC STUDIES
      • ARAB LITERATURE
      • MAGHREBIAN & WEST AFRICAN STUDIES
      • WEST EUROPEAN & EURO-MEDITERRANEAN LITERATURES
      • EAST EUROPEAN & POST-SOVIET LITERATURES
      • PORTUGUESE STUDIES
      • LUSOPHONE AFRICAN STUDIES
      • LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
    • PERIODS >
      • MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN STUDIES
      • 19TH-CENTURY STUDIES
    • FIELDS >
      • TRANSCULTURAL HUMANITIES
      • TRANSCOLONIAL & TRANSINDIGENOUS STUDIES
      • MARITIME HUMANITIES
      • FEMINISMS, GENDER & QUEER STUDIES
      • EROTICISM & SEXUALITY STUDIES
      • PLANT & ANIMAL STUDIES
      • APOCALYPTIC STUDIES
    • TOPICS >
      • TRAVEL WRITING
      • WRITINGS ON ART
  • LIBRARY & THE WORLD
    • ARCTIC & SCANDINAVIA >
      • GREENLAND
      • ICELAND
      • NORWAY
      • SWEDEN
      • FINLAND
      • DENMARK
    • EASTERN EUROPE >
      • ESTONIA
      • LATVIA
      • LITHUANIA
      • RUSSIA
      • BELARUS
      • UKRAINE
      • POLAND
      • Forty Years of Travel in Poland
      • CZECH REPUBLIC
      • SLOVAKIA
      • HUNGARY
      • ROMANIA
      • MOLDOVA
    • WESTERN EUROPE >
      • IRELAND
      • SCOTLAND
      • GREAT BRITAIN
      • NETHERLANDS
      • BELGIUM
      • LUXEMBURG
      • GERMANY
      • AUSTRIA
      • LIECHTENSTEIN
      • SWITZERLAND
      • FRANCE
      • MIDI
      • ITALY
      • VENICE
      • SICILY
      • MALTA
      • CATALONIA
      • SPAIN
      • PORTUGAL
      • CANARY ISLANDS
    • THE BALKANS >
      • SLOVENIA
      • CROATIA
      • SERBIA
      • ALBANIA
      • BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
      • MONTENEGRO
      • BULGARIA
      • NORTH MACEDONIA
      • GREECE
    • CAUCASUS >
      • GEORGIA
      • ARMENIA
      • AZERBAIJAN
      • CHECHNYA & INGUSHETIA
      • DAGESTAN
      • A Ride across the Caucasus
    • MIDDLE EAST >
      • EGYPT
      • LEBANON
      • PALESTINE
      • ISRAEL
      • CYPRUS
      • TURKEY
      • CAPPADOCIA
      • KURDISTAN
      • SYRIA
      • IRAQ
      • KUWAIT
      • JORDAN
      • SAUDI ARABIA
      • QATAR
      • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
      • BAHRAIN
      • OMAN
      • YEMEN
    • MAGHREB & SAHEL >
      • AL-ANDALUS
      • MOROCCO
      • TUNISIA
      • ALGERIA
      • LIBYA
      • SAHRAWI REPUBLIC
      • MAURITANIA
      • MALI
      • BURKINA FASO
      • NIGER
      • CHAD
      • SUDAN
      • FULANI WORLD
      • MANDINGA WORLD
    • WEST AFRICA >
      • SENEGAL
      • GAMBIA
      • CAPE VERDE
      • GUINEA-BISSAU
      • GUINEA
      • SIERRA LEONE
      • IVORY COAST
      • GHANA
      • SAO TOME & PRINCIPE
      • TOGO
      • BENIN
      • NIGERIA
      • CAMEROON
      • EQUATORIAL GUINEA
      • CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
      • GABON
    • THE HORN OF AFRICA >
      • ETHIOPIA
      • ERITREA
      • DJIBOUTI
      • SOMALIA
    • THE SOUTH OF AFRICA >
      • CONGO
      • UGANDA
      • KENYA
      • RWANDA
      • BURUNDI
      • TANZANIA
      • ANGOLA
      • ZAMBIA
      • MALAWI
      • MOZAMBIQUE
      • ZIMBABWE
      • NAMIBIA
      • BOTSWANA
      • SOUTH AFRICA
      • LESOTHO
      • ESWATINI
    • INDIA & INDIAN OCEAN >
      • INDIA
      • NEPAL
      • BHUTAN
      • BANGLADESH
      • SRI LANKA
      • MALDIVES
      • SEYCHELLES
      • MAURITIUS
      • COMOROS
      • MADAGASCAR
    • SOUTH EAST ASIA >
      • LAOS
      • VIETNAM
      • CAMBODIA
      • MYANMAR
      • THAILAND
      • MALAYSIA
      • SINGAPORE
      • BRUNEI
      • INDONESIA
      • BALI
      • TIMOR
      • PHILIPPINES
    • IRAN & CENTRAL ASIA >
      • IRAN
      • AFGHANISTAN
      • PAKISTAN
      • UZBEKISTAN
      • TAJIKISTAN
      • KYRGYZSTAN
      • TURKMENISTAN
      • KAZAKHSTAN
      • TAKLAMAKAN & THE UYGHURS
    • NORTH & NORTH EAST ASIA >
      • CHUKOTKA & KAMCHATKA
      • SAKHA (YAKUTIA)
      • JAPAN
      • MANCHURIA
      • KOREA
      • BURYATIA
      • TUVA
      • MONGOLIA
      • CHINA
      • TIBET
    • NORTH AMERICA >
      • CANADA
      • UNITED STATES
    • MESOAMERICA >
      • MEXICO
      • GUATEMALA
      • BELIZE
      • EL SALVADOR
      • HONDURAS
      • NICARAGUA
      • COSTA RICA
      • PANAMA
    • THE CARIBBEAN >
      • CUBA
      • JAMAICA
      • HAITI
      • DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
      • PUERTO RICO
      • MARTINIQUE
      • TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
    • SOUTH AMERICA >
      • BRAZIL
      • COLOMBIA
      • VENEZUELA
      • GUYANA
      • SURINAME
      • ECUADOR
      • PERU
      • BOLIVIA
      • URUGUAY
      • PARAGUAY
      • ARGENTINA
      • CHILE
    • POLYNESIA >
      • EASTER ISLAND
      • TAHITI & FRENCH POLYNESIA
      • SAMOA
      • TONGA
    • MICRONESIA >
      • MARSHALL ISLANDS
      • PALAU
      • KIRIBATI
    • MELANESIA >
      • PAPUA NEW GUINEA
      • NEW CALEDONIA
      • VANUATU
      • FIJI
      • SOLOMON ISLANDS
    • AUSTRALASIA >
      • AUSTRALIA
      • NEW ZEALAND
    • ANTARCTICA >
      • EXPLORATION
  • AUTOBIOGRAPHICA & MARGINALIA
    • The Four Riders
    • The Flight of the Crimson Angel
    • Becoming undead
    • Transition
    • LIFESTYLE
    • ON LANGUAGES
    • FALCONRY
    • NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY >
      • PLANTS >
        • BOTANIC GARDENS
        • FORESTS
      • BUTTERFLIES
      • AMPHIBIANS & REPTILES
      • BIRDS
      • MAMMALS
      • WATER & AQUATIC LIFE
      • EARTH
      • LIGHT
    • GARDEN & DESERT. Erotic Journal
  • News & Events
    • Void in the making. RESEARCH BLOG
  • TEXTS
  • Contact